McDowell likens republicans to Mugabe

The republican movement must stop pretending to be like the peacemaker Nelson Mandela when it is in fact closer to the dictator Robert Mugabe, Justice Minister Michael McDowell said tonight.

In another bitterly critical attack on Sinn Féin and the IRA, Mr McDowell said the movement had presided over a situation where young men suspected of being informers were tortured with cigarette burns and forced to confess to their families on video.